Turkey doesn't see Iraqi, Israeli gas in planned TANAP pipeline: minister
Istanbul (Platts)--25Nov2013/953 am EST/1453 GMT
Turkey does not envisage the planned Azeri-Turkish TANAP gas pipeline carrying gas from either Iraq or Israel, Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz said in television interview Monday.
Asked if gas from either country would be carried by the planned 16 billion cu m/year initial capacity of the TANAP line Yildiz said it already had its own gas supply from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field, being developed by the Shah Deniz consortium, including BP, Statoil and Total.
"We don't feel the need to add gas from other countries," he said, pointing out that other gas fields such as Apsheron, in the Azeri sector of the Caspian are also expected to produce gas which can be fed into TANAP.
With the Shah Deniz field only expected to provide 1 billion cu m/yr of gas for TANAP, both the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq and Israel's east Mediterranean gas fields have been suggested as possible sources of gas to fill the remaining capacity.
Asked if gas from either country would be carried by the planned 16 billion cu m/year initial capacity of the TANAP line Yildiz said it already had its own gas supply from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field, being developed by the Shah Deniz consortium, including BP, Statoil and Total.
"We don't feel the need to add gas from other countries," he said, pointing out that other gas fields such as Apsheron, in the Azeri sector of the Caspian are also expected to produce gas which can be fed into TANAP.
With the Shah Deniz field only expected to provide 1 billion cu m/yr of gas for TANAP, both the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq and Israel's east Mediterranean gas fields have been suggested as possible sources of gas to fill the remaining capacity.
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Recently a senior official from Turkey's energy ministry was reported as suggesting that gas from the Kurdistan region could be transited to Europe via Turkey and that in such an event Turkey should take a larger equity stake in TANAP than is currently envisaged.
Under the inter governmental agreement for TANAP signed last year between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan will hold 80% of equity in TANAP and Turkey 20%.
Earlier this year it was announced that Azerbaijan would offer 29% of its stake to three members of the consortium developing the Shah Deniz field of which 12% would go to BP, 12% to Statoil, and 5% to Total.
Company officials have confirmed that an agreement in principal has been reached on the equity stakes.
But Al Cook, BP's Vice President for Shah Deniz, told Platts last week that final investment decision on both the Shah Deniz development and the TANAP pipeline development are not dependent on the equity division being finally agreed.
Both FIDs can be finalised without a final deal on the TANAP equity split and the division of equity may change in the future he said.
--David O'Byrne, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Jeremy Lovell, jeremy.lovell@platts.com
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Link to source: http://www.platts.com/latest-news/natural-gas/istanbul/turkey-doesnt-see-iraqi-israeli-gas-in-planned-26489764
